The nature of Marnie's deliberate name games bears irresistible parallel to the games that Vertigo's Judy plays.* Each manipulates men to believe she is someone else - and each does so as the result of a perversion at the hands of men. Further, the source of the manipulation plays prominently into the plot of each film. Hitchcock more carefully constrcuts the deliberate component of Marnie's identity crisis, though: while Judy's behavior comes as a direct consequence of literal blackmail, Marnie's takes its root more indirectly in her accident with the sailor. Such a degree of nuance reflects once again Hitchcock's increasing precision as he builds towards the culmination of his work: Marnie.

[close this note]
This parallel resurfaces after the rape scene.